Christian de Portzamparc

BY THE JAG

Christian de Portzamparc is a Pritzker Prize winner from Casablanca. He studied in Ecole Nationale Superieure des Beaux Arts in Paris and worked with Eugene Baudoin and George Cadilis to complete his architectural doctrine and theoretical studies. Since his first commission work, a water tower in Marne-La-Valle, the architect became a “must” on French architecture.

Portzamparc's projects vary from music related (The Erik Satie Conservatory of Music, the Dance School of The Paris Opera and the City of Music in La Villette) to housing developments (Hautes-Formes, residential complex in Fukuoka, Japan and others). Holding his own country’s highest honors, Portzamparc is not only featured as an architect but also as an artist; he paints and is the creator of all of the sketches, renderings and murals in his completed projects.

His office, CDP, is concerned with research avoiding pure speculation. For him, architecture is about the quality of life; the aesthetics are conditioned by ethics, making projects drawn from dreams. The reflection of the state of real world awareness to concrete reality.